


Pumpkin and Scythe

by Steangine



Category: Bleach
Genre: AU, M/M, Starbucks, employee Ichigo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-28 00:38:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12594136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steangine/pseuds/Steangine
Summary: A busy day at work, a client who easily gets on someone's nerves and a practical best friend.[short one shot][pre-slash / AU]





	Pumpkin and Scythe

Fall meant warm colored leaves that painted the streets in all the shades of red, orange, yellow and brown. But it also meant cold and cold meant more people looking for a temporary shelter into a café shop. In other words, from Kurosaki Ichigo’s point of view, Fall meant a more frenetic rhythm at work.

Ichigo managed to get into a college in London for his specialization, but, despite having received a scholarship, he wanted to find a job so that he wouldn’t have needed any help from his family. He was lucky enough to meet with Rukia at the college, who was from Japan like him, one year older and made him enter part-time where she worked. They became best friends without being aware of it, but still spent half of their time together arguing over everything.

“Ichigo, fool, come here!”

“I’m quite busy here, Rukia! Just help yourself!”

It was raining, there was wind and every single human being who had the slightest minute of free time to spend, stuffed themselves into the café, pushing to reach the counter far from the automatic sliding doors which made the cold blow inside.

Ichigo was reacting like an automat at every voice that spoke to him. Order, payment, name, preparation, place order. That was the correct succession, but all the orders mingled among them, so Ichigo took order for a matcha latte, but was already preparing two hot chocolates, a grande cappuccino and handing a cream croissant.

There was a cacophony of voices, accents and nationalities. Many times Ichigo wasn’t sure he wrote down the correct name, most of the times he was sure he wrote down something wrong. But somehow he grasped the gist of it and none of the customers had ever got the wrong order from him.

Then, _he_ arrived.

It was still raining and it was almost dinner time and, but that wasn’t refraining most of the people from going outside. Ichigo was thinking about his small but comfortable room when a new customer entered the café. He didn’t notice him until he got closer and took off the hood, revealing his clear blue hair. Nothing new, in Tokyo Ichigo saw many bizarre combinations of colors on many heads, some stranger than what he had ever seen in London. What took him aback were the eyes. Blue, sharp, dangerous.

The man looked down on Ichigo, he gave him a quick glance and focused on the blackboard behind. His hands were hidden inside the pockets of his coat and his posture was relaxed. When his turn arrived, he just took a step forward, deep in silence analyzing the drinks without worrying about the long queue behind him.

“Excuse me.” Ichigo sounded harsher than he had to. “What do you want, sir?”

He made up with that _sir_ that didn’t match up with the obvious annoyance that lingered inside him – and how old was he? Thirty? – It wasn’t logical, nor the attitude of the young man was new to him., but looking at his pretentious face pissed him off in a mechanical reaction.

The man looked down again and took one second more than Ichigo could wait. But as Ichigo opened his mouth, the man spoke over him.

“Pumpkin spice latte, Jack.”

Ichigo frowned. “Jack who?”

“Jack o’ lantern.” The man tended the money. “Your hair looks like a pumpkin.”

In less than two seconds, Ichigo felt his mood mingling together annoyance, anger and a good quantity of desire of punching that customer right into the face. The feeble smirk of his thin lips spread the silent chuckle all over his face and his sharp eyes were laughing at him. Not the first time someone made fun of his hair, but the first it pissed him off to those extents.

Something probably showed on his face, because Rukia’s fingers arrived just in time into his ribs to stop a reply potentially lethal for his own short and inglorious career as a Starbucks part-time employee.

“Alright… What name?”

The smile he forced was a grimace.

“Grimmjow.”

Ichigo opened his mouth, a question he didn’t want to make ready to get out of his mouth, but all he said was just “Thank you. Pumpkin spice latte ready in a minute.” and he gave the change back.

The man walked away, for the happiness of those behind him, and Ichigo felt himself pushed away from the counter by Rukia.

“Go prepare the drinks, you fool.”

Ichigo didn’t have any troubles preparing the drinks. He recalled the last five orders and was fast at mixing the flavors and pouring them into the cups. Writing the names wasn’t a big deal, nor in katakana, nor in western alphabet. But there was a single problem that taunted Ichigo’s mind since when the young man placed his order: how was his name spelled?

He was a foreigner, Ichigo guessed it as he revealed his face. Usually, when a foreigner had a strange name, it was common asking for it at least another time. But with that man, Ichigo’s pride braked the idea.

So, he lingered. The tip of the black marker near the soon to be filled cup and his mind near to panic, as none of the mental schemes of letters seemed to work. What was that? Grimm-something. The buzzing in the background blurred his hearing and _that_ wasn’t a name he could relate to a well-known name. Couldn’t it be Matthew? Or Jonathan? Even his name was as annoying as his attitude and face.

Ichigo took a quick glance at the customer. There was a crowd and he had a black coat, but he was tall and his blue hair stood out more than any other color into the café. And he was looking at Ichigo, waiting with an amused smile on his lips.

Ichigo snorted. “Then, Grim-something.”

When he placed the cup on the counter, he didn’t call for his name. Yet, he looked at him into the eyes and the man went taking his cup. Ichigo pretended he was done with him and listened to Rukia placing new orders. But he was observing the man, who didn’t start drinking straight away, but turned the cup until he saw what Ichigo did to sign his name. He looked astonished and that was enough for Ichigo, who decided the matter was finally settled.

But few minutes later, it seemed like _he_ deemed it wasn’t.

“Yo, Pumpkin.”

Ichigo recognized his voice and turned back so fast he startled the girl that was about to take her drink. Rukia took the cup from his hands and smiled at the young student; with the other hand, she poked directly into Ichigo’s ribs.

“…d-do you need something else?”

His hip was hurting, but the pain managed to calm down his spirit enough to reply according to the employees’ etiquette. Of course, not enough to spit back. “And my name’s Ichigo.”

Ichigo pointed at the label on his t-shirt.

“Pumpkin matches the hair better.”

The man tended out the cup. Ichigo didn’t think and he mechanically took it, cursing himself only when it was too late to pull back the arm. The cup was still warm, but empty. A black drawing caught the eye, a small caricature of the grim reaper holding a small scythe. Under it, in blue, there was a name written both in katakana and romaji.

_ Grimmjow _ .

“That’s my name, Pumpkin. Ah no, wait, Strawberry, isn’t it?”

Ichigo was about to reply –wait, did he understand Japanese???– but the man fended the crowd so easily, it seemed like everyone around him agreed to move and make him space only to close up after his passage, like water. Ichigo looked back at the name and spotted a number. After the number there was another one and another, enough numbers to compose a mobile number.

“How cheeky. As if I’m saving that.”

“Ichigo, move your thumb. I can’t see the last two properly.”

“Ok–hey! Rukia, what are you doing with my mobile?! Don’t take my things!”

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to post this for Halloween, then I forgot. Rukia is the practical best friend who does what Ichigo would like to do, but mhe must pretend he is cool to do it (because he is stupid).


End file.
